'A very, very bad idea': ICAC hears concerns over proposed $388,000 UOW executive role
Inquiry hears Chancellor rejected calls to advertise the role
The University of Wollongong’s chief people and culture officer says she was “shocked” when Alyssa White sought approval for a new $388,000-a-year vice-president role she expected to fill herself.
Alison Bourke told the Independent Commission Against Corruption she immediately argued the role should be advertised, but Chancellor Michael Still replied: “Definitely not.”
Bourke recalled Still saying “process prevents the right decision” and that People and Culture had been known to “stop things” and “we need to change that”.
Bourke described a series of conversations in late January 2025 after White outlined plans to create a new Vice President Strategy and Executive Affairs role, carrying a remuneration package of $388,443.75, while also seeking to increase the title and salary of Associate Director Governance Dr Pei Shan Stacy Oon.
According to Bourke’s contemporaneous file notes, White told her Chancellor Michael Still and incoming vice-chancellor Professor Max Lu had already decided she would fill the position.
“I was shocked,” Bourke told the inquiry.
She said her concern was not only that White was proposing a senior executive role for herself, but that it was not intended to be filled through a transparent and competitive recruitment process.
Bourke told the Commission that the proposal emerged as the university prepared for a major organisational restructure, and that tighter recruitment controls were in place as part of the university’s financial transformation program, making the creation of new executive positions particularly concerning.
She said White appeared confident the proposal would proceed, describing her approach as matter-of-fact.
“I guess just how brazen almost, for want of a better phrase, that she’d... ‘it’s happening and that will be me’,” Bourke said.
Bourke said Still repeatedly told her the proposal should proceed because “Professor Lu wants this in”, even though Professor Lu had not yet formally commenced as vice-chancellor.
Concerned by what she regarded as legal, industrial and cultural risks, Bourke documented her concerns before escalating them to General Counsel Rebecca Lim, Chancellor Michael Still and interim vice-chancellor Professor John Dewar.
She prepared a written briefing outlining three options, including delaying the proposal to obtain legal advice or abandoning the creation of the role altogether.
The inquiry heard Bourke and Lim then briefed Professor Dewar, who described the proposal as “a very, very bad idea” and directed that no further work proceed until he had spoken with Chancellor Still.
Bourke’s evidence was interrupted when the Commission adjourned for the day and will continue on Wednesday, July 1.
Operation Scandi is examining recruitment, governance and procurement practices at the University of Wollongong, including whether recruitment processes were manipulated to benefit associates of Alyssa White and whether conflicts of interest were appropriately managed.
ICAC has made no findings in Operation Scandi. All named individuals are subject to allegations at a public inquiry.
